1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus to enable a user to operate the image forming apparatus at a front of the image forming apparatus, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus is an apparatus that prints an image on a printing medium, e.g., paper, according to an input image signal. As one example of the conventional image forming apparatus, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is configured such that a light beam is scanned to a photosensitive member charged with an electric potential to form an electrostatic latent image on an outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive member, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by adhering a toner onto the electrostatic latent image, and the toner image is transferred and fixed onto paper. The printed paper is discharged outside of a main body of the image forming apparatus by discharge rollers.
The conventional image forming apparatus as described above is classified as either a front-in-side-out (FISO) type or a front-in-front-out (FIFO) type according to a paper feeding direction and a paper discharging direction. The FISO type and the FIFO type have a common feature that a paper supply cassette can be detachably mounted to the front of the main body. However, the FISO type and the FIFO type have differences in the position of a printing unit which prints an image on paper through a developing unit and a transfer unit and a discharge direction of the printed paper. In other words, the FISO type is configured such that the printing unit is disposed adjacent to a side panel of the main body and the printed paper is fed and discharged sideways out of the side panel with respect to the main body. In contrast, the FIFO type is configured such that the printing unit is disposed adjacent to a rear panel of the main body and the printed paper is fed and discharged to a front portion of the main body.
When designing the conventional image forming apparatus, special consideration should be given to printing quality, speed and user convenience.
However, the FISO type image forming apparatus is structurally large, which is inconvenient. Also, when removing jammed paper from the main body, or when replacing expendables in the printing unit, such operations are performed at the side panel of the main body where the printing unit is mounted adjacent thereto. Therefore, there is a problem in that a space for the above operations needs to be freed in a vicinity of the side panel of the main body.
Even though the FIFO type image forming apparatus is slightly more compact than the FISO type image forming apparatus, the FIFO type image forming apparatus includes a complicated paper feeding path for discharging the printed paper to the front of the main body. In addition, similarly to the FISO type, the FIFO type image forming apparatus has problem of freeing a working space. In other words, when removing jammed paper from the main body, or replacing expendables in the printing unit, such operations are performed at the rear panel of the main body, where the printing unit is mounted adjacent thereto. Therefore, there is a problem in that a space for the above operations needs to be freed in a vicinity of the rear panel of the main body.